New Delhi: India has identified 30 critical minerals that it considers essential for the country’s economic development and national security to ensure “self-reliance” and address “vulnerabilities” in its supply chain.
At an event held on Wednesday, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi released the ‘Report of the Committee on Identification of Important Minerals’, which includes a list of thirty important minerals. Antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, phosphorus, potash, titanium, tungsten, and rare earth elements. it had been
Government officials have said that this list will be reviewed from time to time.
with some exceptions like copper, gallium (discovered as a by-product during the production of alumina), graphite, cadmium (discovered as a by-product during zinc smelting and refining), phosphorus, potash and titanium, For most of these minerals, India is 100 per cent dependent on imports. According to experts in the field, even today, only about 10-20 per cent of India’s true potential of important minerals has been discovered.
The latest development is significant because of the importance of these minerals. From mobile phones to electric vehicles, solar panels, semiconductors and wind turbines, all modern technologies rely on important minerals such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, thallium and rare earth elements. Such minerals are essential not only in high-tech electronics and telecommunications, but also in transportation and defense.
While most of the countries in the world have identified important minerals as per their national priorities and future requirements, India had not done so till now.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Mines constituted a seven-member committee under Veena Kumari Dermal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Mines, to identify a list of such important minerals.
Speaking on the occasion, Mines Secretary Vivek Bhardwaj said that releasing the first list of critical minerals is important as it sends a message to the world and industry that India is trying to ensure that its supply chain is not disrupted.
“It is also important because we need to focus on these minerals. Many of us may not know that India today produces 95 minerals. But this list gives us a renewed focus on where we need to redouble our energies, efforts and ensure that there is no disruption in the supply chain. Canada, the UK and Australia also came out with their own lists of critical minerals last year.
fertilizers in list
Speaking on the occasion, Bhardwaj said the committee, constituted last November, tried to understand the “economic importance, strategic importance, our dependence on other countries, domestic availability” of each mineral.
He said, “…through a very careful three-stage process, we have come to this list of important minerals in the country.”
According to Bhardwaj, in the first phase key mineral strategies of various countries like Australia, USA, Canada, UK, Japan and South Korea were studied. Accordingly, 69 elements/minerals considered important by major global economies were also identified for future initiatives.
In the second phase, an inter-ministerial consultation was held with various ministries to identify important minerals for their respective sectors. Ministries of Power, New and Renewable Energy, as well as Departments of Atomic Energy, Fertilizers, Science and Technology, Pharmaceuticals and NITI Aayog , government advisory body, gave their comments and suggestions.
The third step involved deriving an empirical formula for the evaluation of mineral severity.
Based on this three-stage assessment, net import dependence and resource/reserve position of the country, a total of 30 minerals were found to be most important for India, Bhardwaj said.
India has also included fertilizers in the list of important minerals.
To this Bhardwaj said, “This is because we are a country which is one of the largest exporters of rice and wheat in the world, we need to support a large population and farmers as well.” So fertilizers are very important for us”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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